LED mirror blinkers

Dezert4Runner

Dezert4Runner

Senior Member
I finally finished 1 side of my project after some swear words and persistence! I've wanted to figure out a way to put a red arrow blinker in my mirrors like you see on the full-size Chevys. I found some 28 SMD LED's off of E-bay, and paid $19 shipped from a seller in China, and they showed up in about a week. Not bad for slow boat int'l shipping.

Here's what they look like
bca78d14.jpg~original



I disassembled my mirror and had to epoxy these onto the back of the mirror. I originally thought they came with a peel off film with adhesive on the front, probably because that's how most I researched online worked.

2cee0edb.jpg~original




I then ran the wires through the stock location going from the door to the body of the truck and connected them to the turn signal wire near the steering column using a splicing type of connector.

Daytime pics
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In the garage under low light
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Garage door shut & lights off
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Here's the last shot which was taken through my tinted window at night
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Pretty happy with it, just gotta do the driver's side!
:cheers:
 
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got a write up on how you got the mirror off? i've taken the whole assembly off when i painted them black but i wasn't able to take the mirror off. i pulled it but was afraid to break it. looks sweet! got a pic of the wiring?
 
Tucson4runner said:
got a write up on how you got the mirror off? i've taken the whole assembly off when i painted them black but i wasn't able to take the mirror off. i pulled it but was afraid to break it. looks sweet! got a pic of the wiring?
Click to expand...

There's a single Phillips head screw on the under side of the housing. Take that out and the mirror/ motor bracket comes out of the plastic housing. You take a heat gun to the back of the mirror edges and slowly go around it a couple times, which softens up the plastic enough to pop the mirror out.

Here's a video that I used to figure it out. This guy actually sells the same kits

Shark Racing LED Signal Mirror Kit Installation - YouTube
 
They don't look that bright. Is that just the pictures or are they kinda dull? Did you have to do anything to the mirror to get the LEDs to shine through or you just glued them on and that was all?
 
zacattack20 said:
They don't look that bright. Is that just the pictures or are they kinda dull? Did you have to do anything to the mirror to get the LEDs to shine through or you just glued them on and that was all?
Click to expand...

They were pretty bright testing them out before putting them behind the mirror. They just stick to the back of the mirror after you remove some of the dried residue from the yellow adhesive pads that were already there.

I think that the epoxy I used didn't allow them to sit directly against the mirror, so they could be brighter. Night time driving is what this was intended for, so it's bright enough at night IMO.
 
Dezert4Runner said:
They were pretty bright testing them out before putting them behind the mirror. They just stick to the back of the mirror after you remove some of the dried residue from the yellow adhesive pads that were already there.

I think that the epoxy I used didn't allow them to sit directly against the mirror, so they could be brighter. Night time driving is what this was intended for, so it's bright enough at night IMO.
Click to expand...

Alright. These seem pretty cool. I've been wanting to do this too. Ill probably pick some of these up then. Thanks.
 
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A few side notes about the install after I installed the driver's side & came up with this conclusion:

The passenger side must have a slightly concave shape to the mirror (hence why "objects are closer than they appear" lol), because I squeezed the mirror with the LED on it back into the mirror backing plate with only having to make a small groove for the wires. I actually replaced the ultra thin ones that came with it with a 24 gauge wire (which I now realize was a mistake fitment wise). This could be why the passenger side is a bit dimmer than the driver's side, because the mirror's not perfectly flat.

The driver's side has a perfectly flat mirror, and there was no room for the LED turn signal without having to do some major counter sinking into the mirror backing plate due to the ridges in it.

It took me about 3-4 hrs per side start to finish with the mirror assembly removal, door panel removal (to unclip the power mirror harness, epoxy the turn signals to the mirror & wait 20 mins to set, and MOSTLY due to routing the wires through the mirror assembly - theough the door - into cab, then tap the blinker wires under the dash.

Basically, you better have a lot of time and a Dremel to complete this mod, but man are these things BAD A$$ at night! :boink:

Just food for thought for anyone thinking of attempting this.
 
And you took pictures during the process and have a write up ready.... Right? Cuz I'm looking at doing this just need a little bit more guidance.
 
When I saw the thread title, I instantly thought it was some 1/2 baked redneck crap. That's actually way bad ass. Looks good.
 
Tucson4runner said:
And you took pictures during the process and have a write up ready.... Right? Cuz I'm looking at doing this just need a little bit more guidance.
Click to expand...

I honestly only stopped to take pics after I was done, so no write up. I'm fairly impatient. I do, however, have some consolation shots of the driver's side finished :D

7f93149f.jpg~original


364df960.jpg~original
 
I have two things to be careful of. First be careful when removing the left over adhesive on the back of the mirror. I accidentally removed some of the reflectiveness when taking off the adhesive from the passengers side. The second thing is obvious but be careful removing the glass to begin with. At some point before I owned my truck, the drivers side mirror glass had to have been replaced because they used some weird adhesive to keep the mirror attached. It's been at least 6 years and it was some adhesive that never dried and it's sticky as ****. So because of that I eneded up breaking the glass when pulling it out. So this $18 mod cost me an extra $40 by having to replace both pieces of mirror glass.
 
zacattack20 said:
I have two things to be careful of. First be careful when removing the left over adhesive on the back of the mirror. I accidentally removed some of the reflectiveness when taking off the adhesive from the passengers side. The second thing is obvious but be careful removing the glass to begin with. At some point before I owned my truck, the drivers side mirror glass had to have been replaced because they used some weird adhesive to keep the mirror attached. It's been at least 6 years and it was some adhesive that never dried and it's sticky as ****. So because of that I eneded up breaking the glass when pulling it out. So this $18 mod cost me an extra $40 by having to replace both pieces of mirror glass.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the backside of the mirror glass scratches easily and it WILL show through the front of the mirror. I was gently scraping some of the old dried adhesive off of the back with a razor blade scraper used for removing paint and it left some light scratches on the pass side mirror. Luckily not very noticeable for me. I used rubbing alcohol and a disposable blue shop rag to clean off the driver's side.

So what color LED's did you go with? Pics?
 
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